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| Well There's Your Problem (WTYP) | |
|---|---|
| Presentation | |
| Hosted by | Justin Roczniak Alice Caldwell-Kelly Liam Anderson |
| Genre | Engineering Black comedy History Politics |
| Language | English |
| Length | Usually 1-2 hours (range 6:32-3:04:04) |
| Production | |
| No. of episodes | 85 (not including bonus episodes |
| Publication | |
| Original release | 26 September 2019 |
| Related | |
| Website | Official website |
Well There's Your Problem, often abbreviated as WTYP, is a leftist video podcast hosted by Justin Roczniak, Alice-Caldwell Kelly and Liam Anderson, exploring the underlying technical, social and political causes of engineering and systemic disasters through history. Introduced by the hosts as "a podcast with slides"[1], the show covers a wide range of subjects from single events to longer-term or more wide-ranging social or political problems, using dark comedy to help contextualise these disasters and their causes.
It has been characterised by Hyperallergic magazine as exposing "the darkly humorous side of capitalism destroying bridges, dams, and more"[2] and by Patrick Yocum of the Boston Ballet as being a "sarcastic and dry conversation about some of the most ridiculous and occasionally tragic accidents, blunders, miscommunications and societal failures that make the world of big engineering projects so fascinating and scary"[3].
As of October 2021, the YouTube channel on which the podcast is hosted has over 53 thousand subscribers and has had nearly 6.4 million views[4].
Origins
editThe first idea for the podcast came from Caldwell-Kelly, who posted on Twitter that she would do an engineering disasters podcast "as a joke"[5]. Roczniak then took her up on the offer.
The resulting first episode of the show was aired on 26 September 2019 as Untitled Engineering Disaster Podcast-like content and tackled the Silver Bridge collapse. By the second episode, the name Well There's Your Problem had been decided upon and Liam Anderson joined as a permanent host, resulting in the current line-up. Episode 6 was the first episode to appear on the podcast's dedicated YouTube channel[6].
Episodes
editWTYP has covered a wide range of subjects, including the sinking of the MS Estonia, the train derailment and subsequent fire at Lac-Mégantic, the Las Vegas Loop, "five over one" residential properties, oil-funded major infrastructure projects in the Gulf states and the September 11 terrorist attacks. It also features a range of guests, often with professional or personal experience of the episode's subject matter.
Each episode generally starts with the hosts and their guests introducing themselves and providing their pronouns. A news segment follows, before the subject matter of the episode is tackled. The episodes close out with a segment known as "safety third" where listeners send in a story about witnessing safety being put at risk and the hosts review them.
New episodes are released on a roughly weekly basis, with bonus episodes available only to Patreon subscribers being released around once a month.
Live show
editOn 3 September 2021, the first live show recorded in front of an audience was held at Caveat in New York City. It was hosted in-person by Justin and Liam, with Alice joining remotely via videolink.
References
edit- ^ "Well There's Your Problem Episode 3: SEPTA Regional Rail Meltdown 1979-1992". YouTube. 2019.
- ^ "The Darkly Humorous Side of Capitalism Destroying Bridges, Dams, and More". Hyperallergic. 2020.
It's a hangout show, and if you can appreciate the hosts' banter and shared, offbeat (often very dark) sense of humor, then you'll have fun with them and learn a good deal along the way.
- ^ Raczka, Rachel (10 April 2020). "'Well There's Your Problem' will take your mind off our current problems". Boston Globe. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
It's sarcastic and dry conversation about some of the most ridiculous — and occasionally tragic — accidents, blunders, miscommunications, and societal failures that make the world of big engineering projects so fascinating and scary. Plenty of leftist social commentary here.
- ^ "Well There's Your Problem Podcast - About". YouTube. 2021.
- ^ "#RailNatter Episode 43: US railroads can be Good, Actually (with Justin Roczniak)". YouTube. 2021.
I sorta knew Alice through Twitter... Alice just posted as a joke: "hey, I'll do an engineering [disasters] podcast with donoteat"... and [I] was like, "yeah, I'll do a podcast with you, that'd be fun", so we recorded the first episode which, you know, was pretty good, and then we recorded a few more episodes and it continued to be good and people enjoyed it so now here we are, forty-four episodes in and we're doing pretty good.
- ^ "Well There's Your Problem Episode 6: MS Estonia". YouTube. 2019.
Category:History podcasts
Category:Video podcasts
Category:2019 podcast debuts